France shuts schools, Italy limits work outdoors in ‘exceptional’ European heatwave

PARIS/MADRID/ROME - Italy limited work outdoors, France shut schools and Turkey battled wildfires on July 1 in a European heatwave that meteorologists said was “exceptional” for striking so early this year.

Spain confirmed its hottest June on record, while temperatures passed 40 deg C in some of its cities on July 1.

Likewise, heat scaled to reach 40 degrees in the Italian city of Trento, while northern European cities such as London were also sweltering.

Europe is heating up at twice the global average speed and is the world’s fastest-warming continent, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has said.

“What is exceptional... but not unprecedented is the time of year,” said World Meteorological Organisation spokesperson Clare Nullis.

Europe was experiencing extreme heat episodes “which normally we would see later on in the summer,” she said.

Some countries issued health alerts and trade unions attributed the death of a construction worker near the Italian city of Bologna on June 30 to the heat.

Outdoor work was banned in some Italian regions during the hottest hours of the day as Italy issued heatwave red alerts for 17 cities, including Milan and Rome.

Power outages, likely caused or aggravated by spiking electricity consumption from air conditioners, were reported in central Florence and in the northern city of Bergamo. In Sicily, a woman with a heart condition died while walking in the city of Bagheria, news agencies reported.

In the Spanish city of Barcelona, authorities were looking into whether the death of a street sweeper at the weekend was heat-related.

The Red Cross set up an air-conditioned “climate refuge” for residents in Malaga in southern Spain, said a spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Turkey continued to battle the wildfires that forced the temporary evacuation of around 50,000 people on June 30 in areas surrounding the city of Izmir and in the nearby province of Manisa, as well as Hatay in the south-east.

In France, nearly 1,900 schools were closed, up from around 200 on June 30. The heat was set to peak in France on Tuesday at 40-41 deg C in some areas, weather forecaster Meteo France said.

Record temperatures

Scientists say greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are a cause of climate change, with deforestation and industrial practices being other contributing factors. Last year was the planet’s hottest on record.

“We keep hearing about climate change. I think we’re definitely feeling it now,” said Mr Omar Bah, a rental company worker in London, where temperatures hit 32 deg C.

The Mediterranean Sea hit a record 30 deg C off Spain, six degrees above the seasonal average, Spanish weather forecaster AEMET said, as a high pressure system trapped hot air above Europe - a phenomenon known as a heat dome.

Ms Nullis said higher temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea tend to reinforce extreme temperatures over land areas.

The average temperature in Spain was 23.6 deg C in June, weather agency AEMET said. Copernicus said June probably ranks among the five warmest on record.

England had its hottest June since at least 1884, the Met Office national weather service said, citing provisional data.

A Paris-Milan rail service was disrupted because of a mudslide on the French side of the Alps, with full service not expected to be fully restored until mid-July, French rail operator SNCF said.

The top floor of the Eiffel Tower was closed, disappointing scores of visitors.

“I tried to get all organised before our departure and the result is nonsense,” said Ms Laia Pons, 42, a teacher from Barcelona who booked Eiffel tickets for her family three years ago.

When temperatures rise, the puddled iron used to build the Eiffel Tower expands in size and tilts slightly, with no impact on its structural integrity, according to its website.

The scorching temperatures have raised the risk of field fires as farmers in France, the European Union’s biggest grain producer, start harvesting this year’s crop, with many working through the night to avoid peak afternoon temperatures. REUTERS